


Tear it Down and Build it Anew

by songspinner9



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-28
Updated: 2011-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 08:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songspinner9/pseuds/songspinner9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During Jack's absence, Owen finds out a secret that he'll soon learn to share and to keep. A sort of sequel to my earlier story "Construction", but can be read on its own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tear it Down and Build it Anew

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Don't own anything related to Torchwood, despite wishful thinking. RTD and the BBC own it.
> 
> I noticed that in "Adrift", in the conference room confrontation scene, Owen seemed supremely unsurprised that Jack is against Gwen's plan. And the muses started whispering...

The fourth time Ianto started toward the top of the stairs that led to the autopsy bay and then turned away and did something else, Owen had just about had it.

"Oi! Was there something important you needed to tell me or are you going to keep me guessing for the next twenty-four hours?"

Startled, Ianto froze. "Er, yeah. I..." He wandered back to the railing and leaned his forearms on it, looking down with a grimace at the whatever-it-was that Owen was dissecting and trying to identify. "Look, Jack entrusted me with something months ago and I can't just leave it now he's gone. I don't want Tosh to have to deal with it, and well, you're the doctor."

"Nice of you to remember, thanks." Owen stripped off his gloves and tossed them in a nearby bin. "What about Gwen?"

Ianto just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Right. She's got enough on her plate, and I'll just pretend that's what you meant, then. Is it medical then, this mystery of yours and Jack's?"

"In a way," Ianto answered. "it is, but it's more to do with the Rift. We deal with things, and aliens, and well, sometimes people who've come through the Rift, and you know all that." The younger man paused and then went on when Owen raised an impatient eyebrow at him. "It's just that...the Rift goes two ways."

Owen took off his safety glasses and stared at him for a long, silent moment as realization hit. "Some of them went through from Earth in the first place and came back later?"

"They come back damaged."

"And when you say damaged....?" Owen prompted him.

It clearly took a moment for Torchwood's archivist to figure out how to answer. "Some of them...Jack's best guess is that they were taken by the Rift and left somewhere really awful, and then the Rift brought them back. Some of them were burned badly, some were brought back quickly, others took years for them and only months here on Earth, so they went through time as well as space. None of them are sane anymore, not really."

"Fuck. And you and Jack found them all?"

"Two of them were kept in the Vaults, which he found out when he took over command of Torchwood Three." Ianto spat out the words almost in a growl, and Owen watched his colleague's jaw tighten and teeth clench a bit. He rather agreed with the sentiment. "They were kept there like prisoners, like they'd done something wrong. Jack was furious, and had a facility built out on Flat Holm. It has nurses and caregivers and he can't really put them anywhere else. Not Prov...not a hospital or anywhere like that - they'd just be labeled damaged and insane. They can't go home."

Walking up the steps, Owen leaned on the railing next to him. "Sounds like they're in as good as a place as they could be now, thanks to Jack. I assume there's more than two now. What's your connection to them?"

"Twelve residents at the moment. When new ones...come back, we go and find them where the Rift dumps them, and bring them out to the island." He glanced sideways to meet Owen's eyes for a brief moment and smiled a little. "Jack showed me, both as a gesture of trust after Lisa and because he needed backup, I think. Since I do all the budget items, I can put things in and no one else will know. Sometimes I sneak things onto the lists that are definitely not medical supplies. Toys, books, art supplies, music, anything that can help."

"Does it help?"

Ianto blew out a slow breath. "Sometimes. It's hard to go there. Hard to come back here after. At least we can talk about it so someone and he really wants them protected. I don't think even the caregivers know the full story. It's just...Jack really, really didn't approve of how Torchwood One ran things."

"Yeah, I know. He told me when we met. Wanted to do things differently. And now?" Owen asked, curiously. "Why me?"

"Two reasons, I suppose. I need some backup now, and as of last night, the island has a new resident."

"Ah. That's why you were late in." Judging from the roughness of Ianto's voice as he'd told the story, Owen mused, it hadn't been a good night. "Is there more damage than you usually see?"

"I'm not sure. I'd just...I'd feel better if you could take a look at her. You had trauma experience in your residency, if I remember. If you can do this without telling the others. Jack doesn't want them to know. Owen? It's not easy to see. Or hear, sometimes. But..."

"I get it, Ianto. I get it." Owen looked back at him with a smirk. "Is that a note of trust I hear from you? Towards me?"

Ianto jabbed him in the side with his elbow. "Maybe."

"Ow. I'm hurt, truly hurt." Sarcasm abandoned a second later, he really looked at the other man, meeting his eyes. "But thanks, for..."

"Yeah." Ianto shuffled his feet a bit. "You're wondering why I'm trusting you?"

"Well," Owen admitted. "I had wondered, yeah, given what happened before..."

"That's the past, and you know it. Jack told us both enough times." Ianto's hands gripped the railing hard enough to make his knuckles go white with strain. "I know you can keep secrets well enough. We all can."

Listening to him, Owen shook his head a little. "Understatement of the century, there, mate." He slid his own hand on the metal railing just enough to bump against Ianto's in a silent gesture of support. Yup, that was about his limit of mushy stuff for the day. "I'll be done here as soon as I clean up. Were you going tonight?"

"I'd usually wait until you'd all left."

"Figures. Okay, tell Tosh we're checking something out and she'll probably leave well enough alone. Meet you at the SUV in about thirty minutes."

"You are going to take care of whatever slime that is on the floor over there?" Ianto inquired with a straight face, and ducked the retaliatory swat.

"Out of my autopsy bay!" Owen shouted after him, without any particular annoyance. More out of habit, really. Perhaps, he mused, as he descended into the lab and grabbed the mop from the corner, they could actually learn to be a team. Jack would be proud of that when he got back. At the very least, the Hub would still be standing...


End file.
